Anesthetic Neurotoxicity — Clinical Implications of Animal Models

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 372; no. 9; pp. 796 - 797
• Main Authors: Rappaport, Bob A, Suresh, Santhanam, Hertz, Sharon, Evers, Alex S, Orser, Beverley A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Massachusetts Medical Society 26.02.2015
• Subjects: Age; Anesthesia; Anesthetics; Anesthetics - adverse effects; Animal models; Animals; Apoptosis; Brain - drug effects; Brain research; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Drug dosages; Humans; Hypnotics and Sedatives - adverse effects; Laboratory animals; Learning disabilities; Learning Disorders - chemically induced; Models, Animal; Neurotoxicity; Postoperative Complications; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Receptors, GABA - drug effects; Receptors, Glutamate - drug effects; Sedatives; Surgical Procedures, Operative; United States > US; Minnesota
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1414786

Some anesthetics and sedatives have been shown to cause neurotoxic effects in laboratory animals. The FDA collaboration SmartTots recommends undertaking large-scale clinical studies and avoiding nonurgent surgical procedures requiring anesthesia in children younger than 3 years of age. General anesthetic and sedative drugs are administered to millions of infants, toddlers, and preschool children each year to facilitate life-saving surgery and other essential surgical or medical procedures. In the past two decades, mounting data from animal and observational human studies have raised concerns that general anesthetics may cause neurotoxic changes in the developing brain that lead to adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes later in life. To address the growing concern about the potential adverse consequences of general anesthesia in young patients, in 2009 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) established a public–private partnership with the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) called . . .